Portable apparatus for cleaning and grading grain, seed, and the like



Jan, 33, R925:

R. V. JUDSON G GRAIN, SEED, AND THE LIKE 1921 PORTABLE APPARATUS FORCLEANING AND GRADIN Filed March 12.

2 Sheets-Shae? 1 Jan. 13, 1925, 1,522,724

' R. v. JUDSQN PORTABLE APPARATUS FOR CLEANING AND GRADING GRAIN, sman,AND THE'LIKE Filed March 12, 1921.

- 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 mazg Patented Jan. 13, 1925.

UNITED STATES RUSSELL V. JUDSON, OF DETROIT, MICHIGAN. IORTA'BLEAPPARATUS FOR CLEANING AND GRADING GRAIN, SEED, AND '1 Application filedMarch 12, 1921.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, RUSSELL V. Jonson, a citizen of the United States,residing at Detroit, in the county of Wayne and the State of Michigan,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Portable Apparatusfor Cleaning and Grading Grain, Seed, and the like, of which thefollowing is a specification, reference being had to theaccompanyingdrawings, forming a part thereof.

The purpose of this invention is to provide a portable outfit forcleaning and sorting or grading grain,the apparatus shown beingespecially designed to handle beans. Itconsists of certain features andelements of construction and in the combination of parts hereinafterdescribed and. shown in the drawings as indicated by the claims.

In the drawings Figure 1 is a side elevation partly in section showing avehicle carrying a power plant and machinery adapted to be driventhereby for cleaning and sorting grain in accordance with thisinvention.

Figure 2 is a somewhat diagrammatic transverse. section taken asindicated at line 22 on Fi' re 1.

In accor iince with the present practice the bean grower or farmerharvests his crop by cutting the vines and then passing them through athreshing machine designed to separatemost of the stalk and leafmaterial from the beans themselves. The output of the threshenhowevercontains considerable dirt, some chaff and a varying proportion of beansnot suitable for market at the highest price because of-roughnessorirregularity in shape. This mixture of beans and dirt must therefore befurther treated and ordinarily such additional cleaning and sorting is.carried on ati-astorage elevator and the farmer is charged back for thework of cleaning and sorting his particular lot of beans in accordancewith the weight of refuse material culled therefrom. He must first loadthe output of the thresher into sacks and then transport it, usuallyseveral miles, to the elevator where the sacks are dumped into bins orhoppers leading to the various mechanical devices for cleaning thebeans. The final sorting or picking as it is called. may be done by handor by means of machinery suchas a centrifugal picker of the-typeshownin'my pending application, Serial No.*'393,385.1/After the sort-PATENT OFFICE.

IKE.

Serial No. 451,666.

crop and to give him an opportunity to market his final product where hecan secure the best price for it instead of being necessarily limited tothe particular bean elevator in his vicinity, the present inventionprovides a portable outfit which can be taken to the growers premisesand which includes apparatus designed to accomplish the same work asthat which is usually located in the bean elevator.

The apparatus may be mounted upon a motor truck, a trailer, or ahorse-drawn vehicle as desired but as illustrated in Figure 1, I havechosen to show the vehicle as a motor truck of a familiar type having aninternal combustion engine, 1, carried at the forward end of its frame,2, and adapted to drive the vehicle through the usual propeller shaft,3, extending to suitable gearing asso- 2, is a counter-shaft, '6,adapted to be driven by a belt, 7, from a pulley, 8, on the forward endofthe crank shaft of the engine, 1. From this counter-shaft, 6, it istherefore possible to secure power for driving the machinery carried bythe truck for cleaning and sorting the beans. It may be understood thatthe pulley, 8, may be 0 eratively connected with the crank shaft of t eengine. 1, through any form of disengageable clutch. not shown, or whenthe vehicle is traveling and it is not desired to run the cleaningmachinery the belt, 7, may be simply slipped off from the pulley, 8, 'soas to diconnect the countershaft entirely from the engine. Obviously ifthe vehicle is of the horse-drawn type instead of being self propelled,it will;

still be necessary to provide an engine carried on the vehicle frame fordriving the machinery thereon or at least to provide a power pulley fromwhich power may be derived from some other prime mover stationedadjacent the vehicle. Such an arran ement would be a sim 1e and obviousmo ification of that shown in Figure 1 and specific illustration of itis deemed unnecessary.

Just back of the engine, 1, there is mounted on the frame, 2, a cleaningmachine comprising a receiving hopper, 9, having a gate or valve, 10,controlling the flow of beans therefrom to the inclined screen, 11,directly below. The screen, 11, is sufficiently coarse to permit thegood stock to pass through it while the coarse tailings and straw travelby gravity over the screen and are carried off through a spout, 12,discharging at one side of the vehicle. A second screen, 13, below thefirst receives the material for further grading and sifting. This is afine screen permitting sand and dust to pass through it but allowing thegood beans merely to roll down it toward an opening, 14, in a verticalair shaft, 15. leading from a fan or blower, 16, to a discharge hood,17. The heavy sand and dust eliminated by the screen, 13, falls throu ha port, 18, of the inclined chute, 19, and ischarges through a spout,-20. The dust remaining with the beans and entering the opening, 14,tends to be carried away in the air blast passing out through the hood,17, while the beans themselves, being much heavier. travel-xiownwardlyin the air shaft, 1.5, by way of a chute, 21', andare conducted into aboot, 22. of an elevator. 23, mounted at one side of the frame, 2. InFigure 1 only the lower portion of this elevator is shown but it may beunderstood to be of the samefamiliar construction as the elevator, 24,mounted at the opposite side of the frame, 2, and seen in Figure 1 asconsisting of an endless belt, 25, fitted with a series of cups orbuckets. 26, which pick up the beans from the boot of the elevator atthelower limit of belt travel and discharge them as the belt traverses thehead pulley. For convenience both elevators are connected together by acommon drive shaft, 27, for their respective head pulleys. The beansdischarged over the head pulley of the elevator, 23, are received in achute, 28. which leads to the hopper. 29, of a centrifugal sorting orpicking machine of the type above mentioned.

As indicated in Figure 1 the rotary fan or blower. 16. is driven by abelt, 30, from a shaft, 31. which in turn is driven by a belt, 32,traversing a pulley, 33, on the countershaft, 6. .-\n eccentric. 36, onthe shaft, 31, incidentally operates a vibrating device for the sandchut'e. 19. and screens. 11 and 13, of the cleaning machine.

In the picking machine the beans arriving in the hopper. 29. are fedoutwardly therefrom through ports. 34, and are carried by centrifugalforce radially downward across pairs of rubber-faced and co-operatingrollers. 35. through which the rough beans or particles of dirt arepamed by means of frictional engagement which the rollers obtain uponthem. while the smooth good beans are discharged through spouts, 36,leading from the outer ends of the rollers into a receiving hopper, 37.The principle of this type of machine is well understood and is morefully described in my said pending application, Serial No. 393,385." Theculls and dirt removed by the picking rollers, 35, fall into a hopper,38, and are discharged through a spout, 39, from which they may becollected if any further use is to made of them.

The hopper, 3T, discharges into a final cleaning device which consistsof a rotating spirally grooved core of metal indicated at 40, journaledto revolve in a tubular casing, 41, of perforated sheet metal. Thegroove of the core, 40, is fitted with brush bristles, 42, so that asthe beans are picked up by the spiral grooves at one end of the deviceand fed toward the other end as the core, 40, rotates, they are brushedand scoured by the bristles, 42, which thus remove practically all dirtor dust which may have adhered to the beans even through the othercleaning processes and this dust passes out through the perforations ofthe enclosing tube, 41, whence it is collected in a casing, 43, anddischarged through a spout, 44, leading therefrom. The brushed beansarriving at the further end of the rotating core, 40, are dischargedinto a spout, 45, which is preferably of-twin construction providedWilli a valve, 46. for directing the beans into one spout or the otherfor loading them into bags.

As will be seen from Figure 1, the cen trifugal picking machine isdriven by a belt, 47. connecting a pulley, 48, of the countershaft, 6.with a pulley on the shaft, 49. of said machine and an additionalpulley. 50. on said shaft serves to drive the core, 40. of the brushingdevice through a belt, 51.

To facilitate the loading of the beans into the receiving hopper, 9, theoutfit may be provided with the elevator, 24, above mentioned. As shownin Figure 2, its re.- ceiving boot, 52, opens at the outer side where itis provided with a hopper, 53.

into which the beans and dirt to be cleaned and sorted may be dumpedfrom bags or fed directly from the bean threshing machine. Preferablythis hopper, 53, is designed to collapse against the side of the boot,52, by folding about a hinge. 54, so as to come within the lateraldimensions of the vehicle when the apparatus is being transported fromplace to place. From the upper end of the elevator. 24, the beans pickedup by it are discharged to an inclined chute. 55. into the hopper, 9, ofthe cleaning machine.

I claim:-

1. In combination with a vehicle and a power plant mounted thereon,apparatus mounted on said vehicle adapted to receive threshed grain andincluding mechanism for separating out chafi' and dirt, mechanism forseparating rough imperfect grain from smooth grain and mechanism forpolishing and cleaning'the'grain, means for i inaarae conducting thegrain from each-mechanism to the next and drivin connections from saidpower plant adap to operate all said apparatus simultaneously.

2. In combination with a vehicle and a power plant mounted thereon,apparatus assembled on said vehicle including a fanning mill forcleaning grain,- a picking or sorting machine for grain and a grainpolishing machine together with conduits for leading the grain from eachmachine to-the next and driving connections from said power plant tosaid apparatus.

3. In the combination defined in claim 2, an elevator mounted on thevehicle with its receiving boot near the ground and provided with adischarge spout at its upper end arranged to feed material to thefanning mill.

4:. In the combination defined in claim 2, an elevator mounted on saidvehicle and a chute leading from the fanning mill to the'receiving bootthereof, the upper end of said elevator being provided with a dischargespout arranged to feed material to the picking machine.

5. In the combination defined in claim 1, the polishing mechanism beingarranged to receive material from the mechanism for stantially the samelevel and both being arranged to discharge the grain downward- 1y bygravity, an elevator connected to receive materlal released by gravityfrom the tanning mill and carry it upward for discharge into thereceiving ho per of the picking machine together with riving con--nections from said power plant to said machines and elevator.

7. In the combination defined in claim 6, an additional elevator on thevehicle having its receiving chute adjacent the ground and a spoutarranged to discharge into the receiving hopper of the tanning mill; I

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this tenth day ofMarch, A. D. 1921.

RUSSELL v; Jonson.

